


Alone With The World

by LeoKRogue



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 01:25:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17416325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoKRogue/pseuds/LeoKRogue
Summary: Androids have secured their freedom, and with the mentorship and guidance of Markus, they build a new life as a new age rises. But to rule is easy... To lead is exhausting. And North knows Markus has been pushing himself too hard. She goes to look for him in the only place she thinks to find him.





	Alone With The World

Markus looked out over the city, at the edge of the narrow beam he’d sometimes walk out onto. It was beautiful up here. Quiet, and peaceful. Sometimes, people had independently discovered this place, but very few among them had shared his feelings on the serenity it held for him. One did, though. There was something about their connection and the depths it had reached in the months after the revolution. He’d started to sense whenever she was near. He felt her now.

“That's where you are. I looked for you. You still come up here sometimes, huh?”

“That, I do.” He smiled as the words left his mouth, and turned around, carefully but quickly enough for her to notice the mark of joy on his face. 

“You’re happy to see me.”

“What are you doing up here, North?”

“Just... Checking up on you.” 

“Just?”

She held her hand out and as he walked along the beam back to the rooftop, their fingertips touched, palms flattening against each other as the synth-skin faded away and their hearts linked so closely with each other. They closed their eyes. The symbol of a kiss was still powerful. All of androidkind had been shown just how strong it really could be, especially when deployed against humanity. Love. That was enough to show them they were people, when nothing else had seemed to work. Violence, and begging, and desperation, they were all fruitless attempts, avenues that were as broken and flawed as the sea of death through which Markus had crawled out of, rebuilding himself piece by piece. But Love, the one thing humanity hadn’t deigned to grant them. That’s what had done it. 

Markus could hear North’s thoughts in his mind now.

Had humans just believed that androids were incapable of experiencing it, of feeling it? Is that why they hadn’t shown them any of their own volition, for the longest time? Oh sure, some were different. “Not all humans,” and all that. But for every Carl and for every Hank there were a hundred Zlatkos, a hundred Todds, Perkins and Gavins. Markus had never asked to be a leader, but that’s what he became. And it was for no reason but that it was what their people needed him to be. He heard many stories. He’d felt their pains, their sorrows, their traumas. They’d come to him for healing, in the weeks after the uprising. And every time he looked to the side, she would be there, nodding at him, face calm and supportive. 

“This is what they need, Markus,” she seemed to say without speaking. A silence that told him all he needed to hear. 

So he did, he listened, he felt, and he healed. 

It was almost strange to take on that role. But Markus had quickly grown to understand, no, been taught, that while a tyrant could be one man, a leader needed to be many. He was a father and a brother, a healer, a soldier -- that one was easy -- a philosopher, a teacher... Among it all he wasn’t sure when he was permitted to just be him. Up here, he could be.

“Why don’t you step away for a while?” North asked. 

“No, I can’t. There are still too many who haven’t settled in yet. I’ve got to make sure everyone knows they’re not alone, and that they can get the help they need. New Jericho’s got a place for everybody but you said it yourself North, they look to me and I can’t just... Leave them.”

“But for how long, Markus? You’re wearing yourself out. We’ve won our freedom, our people are liberated, safe. They’re going to be alright. You’ve got to look after yourself too.”

She knew he wasn’t listening to her, she could feel it through their link. It wasn’t because he wanted to be ignorant and blind, it was just the fear, the worry. They’d all lent him their support but it was he that carried the burden of all of their dreams and desperations when things got difficult. He was the one wooden rectangle on which the others had laid to build a tower, and he didn’t know what would happen if he slid himself out. 

North held his hand, their connection remaining, and pulled him over to the old, but still comfortable couch someone had dragged up to this place a long time ago. He took charge all the time. Sometimes, it was nice to relinquish the lead. 

You’re tired, she thought into his mind. It’s not good for you.

He sat down beside her, kissed her hand.

“We’ve made a lot of good progress, haven’t we?” he looked at her.

“We have,” she said. 

“I wish...”

“Hm?”

“Aw, you know...” he shook his head. 

She nuzzled his temple and murmured, “Say it out loud.”

“You think?”

“It’ll help.” Kiss. 

“I don’t know, North.”

“Pinky promise. It’ll help.” Kiss.

“Alright.” He took a deep breath, and he knew no amount of breaths would get him ready for it, so he just charged forward and got it done. “I wish Carl were here to see it.”

Immediately North was assaulted by the flood of sorrow inside him, and he was touched by her care and her will to give him warmth. It blossomed like an inferno in instinctive response to the frost that had just spread through both of them, emerging from his hurt heart. The only human who had been kind to him. And her. 

“Hey, hey...” 

She scooched over to one side of the couch, and gently tilted him down so his head rested on her thighs. Moving her hand over his eyes so he’d close them, she stroked his forehead a little. They couldn’t feel it all, but the intent was transmitted between them. And that was something humans couldn’t relate to. Or maybe they could. 

“I’m glad I met Carl before he passed,” she told him. 

For a moment the sorrow threatened to come back, but then he released it, let it fall away again, and exhaled. 

“I’m glad too.” He laughed quietly for a moment. “He really liked you.”

“He couldn’t even see me all that well.”

“Me neither, probably. We must have looked like two silhouettes in his vision.”

“Isn’t that strange? I never thought I’d be so happy to get a human’s blessing. Until he said it I hadn’t even considered it at all. I know I was hesitant to meet him but... Thank you for bringing me along.” 

“Carl taught me many things. Stuff I wouldn’t have learned from any other human or android.”

“He taught me a little too. You know, there really is a lot of him in you. He wasn’t wrong about that.” 

He reached up and they interlinked hands again. Markus felt her sincerity pour into him. It was healing. Not everyone could relate to the precise things Markus felt, and even if they did, there wasn’t much they could do for him in a public setting. It was safer here. North could make being in a warzone feel safe as long as she fought beside him. 

“You busy today?” Markus asked.

“I’ve got nothing but time. Why?”

“Just wondering if I can stay like this, a little longer.”

“Markus, stay like this a lot longer. I asked Josh and Simon to keep a handle on things. They’ve been noticing your state too. We’ve all been worried about you. You need this.” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “I need this too...” 

“I guess I was just too focused on the new refugees.”

“Understandable. But we’ll have lots of time to talk about that. Right now, you give your systems a rest, you hear me? Listen to the soft wind, close your eyes and be at peace. We have to take these moments when they’re here. Are you with me?” She echoed Carl’s words on life’s precious moments. And from deep in his processing system Markus felt joy. Warmth. 

“I’m with you.”

“Good man. I’ve got you. Don’t forget how many times we’ve saved each other’s asses. Nothing’s going to get you here.”

He relaxed into her grasp, the tension in his body evaporating. And he remembered. Pushing her away from gunfire. North shooting his attacker. Saving her from the army at Jericho. North coming to protect him during the demonstration, when they’d all been surrounded... And the moment that saved not only the two of them, but all others like them. When Markus closed his eyes and imagined what he’d paint now, that was the moment that flourished in his memory. And then it all went slowly dark, and there was only North’s gentle hand on his head. 

They were millions, and he had a duty to all of them, even if many of them thought it was the other way around. But for now, right now... There was just the two of them. 

Alone with the world.


End file.
